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forty-eight hours

Saturday morning Xander woke up complaining about his eye. He couldn't open it, he said. I pried it open and he said the light hurt it. It wasn't pink so I thought maybe he had a sinus headache. By 7pm it had puffed up all purple like a black eye. I tried to take him to urgent care but they were closed, and he fell asleep, so I decided to wait until morning.

Sunday he got me up at 2am crying about the pain. I took him to the ER. The doctor barely tried to pry the eye open to look at it, said it was pink eye that had migrated to the socket, wrote him a prescription for anti-biotics and Tylenol with Codeine, and sent us home.

He seemed fine in the morning, but by 2pm he was in agony again. I gave him the Tylenol and took him to the urgent care. The nurse and doctor were nice enough to come out and look at him without admitting him, took one look, and said to get him back to the ER ASAP. Something was said about infection and pressure and the damaging effects of it cutting off the blood supply to the eye.

Back to the ER we went. This time the doctors and nurses freaked out. They started him on IV antibiotics, drew blood, and did some CT scans.

The phrase "orbital cellulitis" was bandied about. The possibility of surgery was raised. About six hours later they decided to have him transported to another hospital with pediatric specialists and much nicer rooms. Finding a spare ambulance took another few hours.

He and I arrived at the new hospital in the wee hours of Monday. Once here they installed him in his room, asked a lot of questions, and said he might have surgery later in the day. If so, he'll be here a few days. If not, he may still be here a few days. They're giving him a constant drip of IV antibiotics and I'm not seeing a change yet. I know oral antibiotics take about 72 hours to manifest change, but these are much stronger so I'm not sure how long they should take. He's only been on them 16 hours or so thus far, I suppose.

Today the two specialists are supposed to take a look at his test results and scans. Surgery seems likely, but maybe that's just me. Seems like you either wait a day to see if the antibiotics are working and then do surgery if they aren't, or play it safe and just go straight to surgery now. If there's pressure and it's not draining on its own, you need to drain it.

The TV in the room is one of those hospital network set-top boxes things. It was broken in several ways, and unusable, so I fixed it. Alas, no Cartoon Network. Apparently they have video game systems they can wheel in, though. (I wonder if this hospital is a Child's Play beneficiary?)

UPDATE: His optic nerve is fine. His brain is fine. His vision seems fine. The swelling is going down. They're giving him stuff to help his sinuses to drain. We're definitely not leaving before Wednesday, and chances are we'll be here a whole week.

Break my heart why don't you. I kid, I kid -- best wishes to you all for his speedy recovery. Make sure to save these pictures so that he can get badass points for telling all his friends when he's older that he got in a fist fight with a Junior Football League champion and took him down. He's still freaking adorable even with the WWE look.

And in all fairness to the docs, if they've diagnoses as cellulitis this does not mean they don't know what it is; they may not have cultured the specific bug yet, but they do know where the bug is living, how it is likely to progress, and what has been effective in stopping similar bugs in the past. This is quite useful knowledge.

Izzywho nearly lost a leg to cellulitis, and who was allergic to his first IV antibiotic

Mom is sleepless and siblings are concerned about delaying Christmas morning. The specialists showed up and said that everything is under control and looking good and undamaged and that surgery shouldn't be necessary, so Mom is happier now.

The doctors seem to have a good handle on things. Way better than the ER doc who sent us home the first time.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. I know seeing him in such pain has been hard on all of you.

I just came back after seeing my father in isolation, due to an infection to his intestines. He'll was being treated for it with antibiotics and after a week had to be admitted, when it didn't get better. My hands need lotion with all the hand washing needed.

Poor little mite! And poor parents too! what a way to spend the holidays!To think that I just dropped by to wish you a great time.Now my wish will go for a prompt recovery for Xander, and peace for the whole of your family.